Tango To Evora
by MadamMayday
Summary: While the company is in the desert, Bree begins to remember her past. One-shot.


AN: I don't know why I wrote this, my past is screaming this is just plain wrong. I suppose I need something to pass the time. Characters belong to my best friend Annie and are from her novel Why We Fight. Also, is this a songfic Xover? Because I used lyrics from Shivna, which are also not mine. Righto.

_**Tango to Evora**_

The sharp scarlet of the now very blunt fire wore against her tired eyes like an oppressive omen. There was no way to silence it's taunting glow as Ambet had wistfully informed the group that their water supply was dangerously low and no rivers were near by as far as she could tell, so the fire tonight would have to die down naturally and they would cover the coals in sand in the morning. Bree leaned back against her hands and stretched her legs out, for a moment her knees crackled more then the burning coals against the sand. Being in the desert for as long as they had began to bring up forgotten memories within Bree; most of them buried and hidden like a single gem within a desert as vast as the one beneath her. However, these memories did not feel like a gem and Bree shuffled anxiously. Most were about her Grandmother, or other dead family members, many were also about her childhood, refusing to participate in her Hesheikan customs after her mother died. Being half Hesheikan, she felt ashamed during most of her youth, and that wound was one that had been constantly pried open by children of full Hesheikan heritage.

Ayia, Ambet and Ed had fallen asleep long ago, Bree had tried to fall asleep a few times throughout the night, but it was mostly dosing, and always she woke up drenched in perspiration, her breathe frantic and her heart racing. She sighed looking out at the endless sea of sand that filled the desert, it was so perfect to the eye, like a soft, warm blanket of taupe had been idly placed there by an idle hand, and herself, a painted Hesheikan upon a painted desert. "A Bhennáin, a bhúireadáin, a bhéicedáin bhinn…" Her hand flew to her mouth and she instantaneously fell backwards into the sand; without realizing it Bree had begun quietly humming an ancient Hesheikan hymn. She remembered it fondly; the words were the old language, long dead within Hesheikan tribes, however every summer solstice the moon would be placed in a certain point in the sky, beside the lion and the noble eagle. At that time, the Hesheikan people would gather together and sing the haunting hymn at the darkest point of the night to honor the legend of Shivna.

Yes, she remembered it; this night seemed to be full of memories. The legend of Shivna, King Shivna, the most noble and honorable Hesheikan king in tribe history, he ruled the desert throne for many years until outsiders began to tread upon the Hesheikan's world of sand. From their new domain in the desert they had constructed a large bell. King Shivna and his people were annoyed by the constant ring of this bell, and so the King stormed into the outsider's settlement. He killed the men guarding the entrance to the bell and threw open the doors. Inside there was a priest and King Shivna pulled the priest forth hurling his spear into the bell cracking it and silencing its haunting resonance. The priest was enraged with what Shivna had done and he cursed him that as the sound of the bell had been broken, so now would any sharp sound send Shivna into madness. The preist, still enraged, took an idle candle and threw it against the bell, the sharp clash immediately sent Shivna into madness and he began to levitate like a bird.

From that point on, Shivna leapt from spot to spot like a bird. Also like a bird, he never again trusted humans, his tribesmen only sent him mad with fear and he could only flee from place to place living naked and hungry. For seven years, he leapt threw the trees, from branch to branch until his madness caught the attention of the moon goddess. She came down from her heavenly throne and gently coaxed Shivna into trusting her. As soon as he began to regain his humanity, the goddess challenged him to a contest of leaping. As Shivna leapt along after the goddess, he once again took flight and returned to madness, never seen again by the Hesheikan people.

And so, every year the tribes gather together at summer solstice when the moon is at it's biggest and lowest point in the sky to sing the haunting hymn of mad Shivna in hopes the moon goddess would stop his madness and return him to his people.

Bree looked over towards the flickering shadows of Ed, Ambet and Ayia. There still figures did not so much as stir and she seized her chance. Digging silently through the sand, she found a fair sized twig. She picked her body up from the desert floor and paced across the sand until Ayia, Ambet and Ed's figures were only small pinpricks in the horizon. Her mind placing them their like a pin to a map, as far away as she could go while still being able to see them, almost as if they were black stars with the poignant orange glow of the burning coals behind them.

Her right hand clasped the twig firmly and slowly she bent down, her hand guiding the twig elegantly as it ran through the smooth, dew touched sand, all her forgotten and buried knowledge began to resurface like she always knew they would. Yes, between the lion, back to the south star and through. The ancient Hesheikan art she had pushed away so many years ago was flowing through her own fingers and extending outwards to the twig and onto the sand, her feet stepping in the most delicate manner like a slow and beautiful dance that no-one in the world had ever seen.

"Shivna, Shivna, Shivna chalh, Shivna chalh, Shivna!"

The words ran off her tongue like rain from the petal of a rose, she tossed aside the twig and stood behind her work. The small, muffled thump of the twig hitting the sand was not heard, Bree stood still, not daring to face what had seen her let down her guard in such a manner. She clamped her mouth shut and pulled her features back into a solid, monotone expression. "Whose there?" a pensive laugh echoed past her, such a laugh Bree only could associate with one person.

"Ambet?" there it was again. Bree spun around in her spot, burying her feet partially in sand, she looked at Bree with thought in her sightless eyes, a piercing expression that made the words die on her lips and her heart give an odd thump. "You are celebrating the night of Shivna." Bree was lost for words; she began to speak, but trailed off, looking deeply pensive. Her mouth felt dry, somehow, every time she tried to speak. "Oh no, I was just playing here in the sand, I mean, that wasn't really me, you know. It was this desert lizard I was playing with, I know I wasn't supposed to and I'll return to the fire immediately –" she said in a rush, but the blind warrior had already stopped her by simply standing there, letting Bree drown in her own words. "I wish I could see it."

Bree was quiet for a while, studying the sky in front of her, deep velvety blue, tracing the constellations with her eyes, feeling very flustered. The air of peace was still present, yet she seemed to have temporarily been encased in an invisible bubble that kept it from her. She concentrated hard on following the lines of the only shape that echoed the heavens of her own land.

"A dhragnéin, a dhelgnacháin" said Ambet.

Bree was jolted out of her reverie. "I'm sorry?" her eyes widened profusely, "A mhinéin na chonaire" sang Ambet stepping closer to Bree until she stood beside her, towering over the young girl. "A dhriséoc, a dhruimnechóc – If I am correct, that is how it goes." Ambet said putting her hand on Bree's shoulder causing her to nearly leap from her own skin.

Silence stretched between them like the very desert beneath their feet. They looked at each other for a moment, in silence even though Ambet could not see Bree, she could certainly sense her presence. Ambet's hand lingered on Bree's shoulder. The air seemed to have been drawn from their surroundings, as if the whole world was holding its breath, and in the protracted and deathly stillness Bree could hear a heart beating.

It was difficult to describe this place.

There were too many contradictions, but though Bree had always been bright as a jewel and curious as a fox, she found she was thinking on them much more then before when she finally arrived in the desert. For example: every rock, every shrub, every dune or lizard and every grain of sand seemed a thousand times clearer and realer than in the forests, of even her own memory, which was like a shadow of a place she had been before, but at the same time, everything now seemed so much softer and gentler.

It was almost sunrise.

For a moment, even if it was an incredibly small one, Bree had a profound sense of delight and then an opposing anguish. Gently removing the blind warrior's hand off her shoulder, she kicked a mound of sand overtop of her creation. "Hesheikan customs are nothing to me now." Bree had just begun to walk away back to camp when she heard it, the pensive laugh, she paused for a moment, and "You know that's not true." Bree could not respond, she continued to walk back to camp constantly looking behind her, a loud beating within her chest. But Ambet was not there, she had not followed her, the blind warrior was simply standing right where Bree had left her.

"You never abandoned your past; you chose not to acknowledge it."

This time Bree did not stop, she continued to the almost obsolete coals, laid down beside Ayia and did not shut her eyes. In the distance, the almost glass like haze of a magnificent scarlet sunrise prevented her from closing her eyes again. Ayia and Ed awoke, laughing and joking about Bree being awake earlier then even Ambet, and she laughed along, short, stifled, short laughter, the kind she could only force in order to sound like herself, when in reality, she felt something completely different. She felt herself feeling enclosed in an enormous bubble, excluded from the rest of the world, simply being pensive, maybe Ambet was right. Even if she was, Bree would never admit it.

Looking out over the sand, the endless beige sea remained, silent, indifferent even.

It would happen. And then she saw it, standing amidst an oddly peaceful blindingly colorful light that seemed to engulf it, and then she was gone too. The ramblings of Ed and Ayia felt miles away, only small whispers amongst a sea of noises. And then it stopped, everything stopped, there was no noise, no murmurs, no desert and Bree could almost feel her heart stop beating in her chest. But somehow in the midst of the frighteningly peaceful silence the stature appeared once more and it suddenly became terrifyingly clear.

Ayia wasn't sure why Bree had seemed so alarmed, nothing had changed since the night before, although it was hard to see her because of the strong glare of the desert sun, no-one could mistake her for an intruder.

The sun remained as bright as ever and the sand as warm, Bree turned away not sure what to do.

From behind her, a pensive laugh echoed through the air.


End file.
